He's Dead
by jls62113
Summary: Michonne is given news that Rick is dead. Quick 1-shot. This may the last story from me until after the premier. Cheers and enjoy!


**He's Dead**

A shattered Tara and an emotionally messed up Aaron stood in Rick and Michonne's living room.

"I'm sorry Michonne, but he's dead."

Michonne stood numb and let those words wash over her like a flash flood. Carl and Judith came to her mind, then she focused on the two standing in front of her.

"How?" She said pointedly.

"We were swarmed by walkers. He told us to run and we assumed he was behind us. I turned and saw him fall. We couldn't get to him." Aaron said looking over at Tara who was crying uncontrollably.

"He's not dead." Michonne said frankly.

"How do you know?" Tara said still sobbing.

"Because I would be dead too."

Rick was taken into the abandoned house a few yards from where he was swarmed by walkers. Once his eyes adjusted to the darkness, he could see a handful of saviors standing around the room. The back door to the house was opened, and he heard the maniacal laughter of their leader and self-proclaimed ruler of the new world.

"He's ready for me? Cool."

Rick heard Negan say right before he walked in.

"Rick Grimes! Good to see you again so soon. How's tricks?"

As much as he wanted to, now was not the time to try and ignore him.

"I know you don't care about how things are going only as far as what we're doing for you, so what do you want, why am I here?"

Half of the saviors looked nervously from Rick to Negan to see what Negan would do about Rick's attitude. The other half jeered like schoolboys waiting to find out the fate of a boy sent to see the principal's office.

"I just wanted to say hi, and see if there is anything I could help you with."

Negan felt Rick's glare.

"Hello, and no, there is nothing you can help me with. We were scavenging for you when we got swarmed by walkers."

"I know. Like I told you, I'm everywhere. We put the walkers on you and pulled you out just in the nick of time. Cool, right?"

Rick never liked playing games when someone's life was at stake.

"Yeah, real cool." Rick said squinting at Negan.

The only cool person in the room was Rick. Negan had mentally screwed with him before, but he was so self-absorbed he couldn't see that his games were playing out. Rick knew he had to show the right about of fear and respect as not to cause this psycho to harm his family again.

"You know Tara and Aaron are back at Alexandria telling your girlfriend that you're dead, right.

"Yeah."

"I'm almost sorry about that, but this stuff really turns me on, gets my juices flowing so to speak."

"I'm glad we can do that for you." Rick said trying really hard not to sound sarcastic.

"Speaking of your girlfriend, she's really in good shape, how is she in the sack, if you don't mind kissing and telling."

Rick was starting to get pissed off, but would not give in to this.

"She's adequate." Rick said watering down considerably the truth.

"Oh." Negan said sounding disappointed. "I guess it's not true for you that once you go black you won't go back."

"I can't rightly say."

"Oh that's right. This is a new thing for you. Trust me on this when I tell you they're all the same."

"Okay." Rick said pretending to be schooled.

"If I wasn't needed elsewhere, I would take you back to Alexandria and invite myself to dinner. Maybe next time." Negan said looking warily at Rick. "I'll want to talk to Michonne to see what she thinks about this subject."

"Okay, I'll let her know."

Negan walked up to him.

"The only reason why I haven't taken her to be one of my wives is because I let all my ex-leaders keep their significant others, because I'm cool like that."

"Thank you." Rick said fighting the urge to rip his throat out.

"Give him his gun back."

A savior quickly ran up to Rick and handed him his gun. Rick watched as Negan and his men walked away.

"Have a nice day Rick. Enjoy the walk back to Alexandria. Hopefully you can catch a ride before dark. Try sticking your thumb out."

The saviors roared with laughter as if reading from a cue card.

Rick took a deep breath and checked his gun. It was loaded and he had bullets on him. He left the abandoned house and quickly scanned the area. He was about ten miles from Alexandria, and wanted to get home. He had a choice. He could stay where he was or he could risk walking. He really couldn't stay where he was due to the walkers the saviors released in the area. He calculated that ten miles would take a little over three hours. If he ran some of it, he would make it home just before it got dark.

Michonne paced the floor while thinking. Periodically she would look at Tara and Aaron. She stopped pacing and looked at them both.

"Drive back out there. We need to get to him before dark."

"But Michonne, we saw him go down." Aaron said.

"I've seen that before too. Go now please."

"Okay." Aaron said missing Daryl's tracking skills at that moment.

Seven miles from Alexandria Tara saw what looked like someone walking in their direction.

"Could that be him?"

Aaron looked and smiled shaking his head.

"Probably. I never should have underestimated Michonne's intuition or Rick's ability to survive."

"He brought us a long way."

They saw Rick stop and pull out his gun. When he saw it was them he put it back in the holstered it.

"Can we give you a lift sailor?" Tara said smiling.

"Did you tell Michonne you thought I was dead?" He said getting in the back seat.

"Yeah, but she said you weren't. She sent us out here to pick you up." Aaron said eyeing Rick through the rear-view mirror.

Rick nodded and looked out the window.

"What happened? We saw you fall." Tara said turning around to look at him.

"I'll tell you about it later. I want to get home."

Michonne waited on the porch. She knew without a doubt he was still alive. He is just a man, a mortal man, but she knew she would know if he died and she wasn't there. She could hear the gate open and the car pull in. She saw him get out of the car when Aaron pulled up in front of their house. She stood and looked at him for a long time. When he started up the steps she walked into the house.

"Aaron said…"

"I knew you weren't dead. What happened?"

"Negan and his boys."

"Did they hurt you?"

"No. He just wanted to screw with my mind. He sent the walkers after us just to get Aaron and Tara away from me. They pulled me out from the walker swarm."

"All that just to mess with you?"

"You know he's mentally ill right?" Rick didn't expect and answer. "He wanted me to tell him how you were in bed. Just in case he tells you sometime, I told him you were adequate."

She looked at him and raised an eyebrow.

"You seriously don't think I would have told him the truth do you? If I had he would have you at his compound before I could take a deep breath. He told me the only reason why he hasn't taken you is because I'm an "ex" leader and he granting me a favor."

Michonne walked up to Rick and looked into his eyes. He stopped ranting and looked into her eyes.

"I think he wants to mess with your mind too." Rick said quietly.

"I'm not afraid of having a conversation with Negan. I'm not typical, and I don't have an ego to bruise. There is a huge difference between Negan and the governor. The governor carried hate and self-loathing in his heart. Negan does not. Negan loves Negan and wants everyone to love him too."

"I didn't like how he talked to me about you."

"Because you love me. You can't let that get in the way of how you respond to him."

"I know. You would have been proud of me."

"I'm always proud of you. The next time you go out past the wall…"

"We go together."

She smiled at him and put her arms around him.


End file.
